hooker

Etymology 1

From hook (verb) + -er.

noun

1. One who, or that which, hooks.
2. A small fishing boat.
   In England there are Brighton Beach boats, Centre-board sloops, Pollywogs, Lough Erne yachts, Unas, New Brighton sailing-boats, yachts of the Norfolk Broads, Itchen, Clyde sailing and Keystone boats, Penzance luggers, Cobbles, Galways, Hookers and Pookhauns […] 1884, James Douglas Jerrold Kelley, American Yachts: Their Clubs and Races, page 161
3. (nautical, slang, derogatory) Any antiquated craft.
4. (rugby) A player who hooks the ball out of the scrum with his foot.
   Hooker Dylan Hartley was sent to the sin-bin after yet another infringement at the breakdown and, on the stroke of half-time, Georgia's territorial advantage finally told when number eight Basilaia surged over from the base of the scrum for a try next to the posts. September 18, 2011, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia”, in BBC Sport
5. (cricket) A batsman or batswoman adept at or fond of playing hook shots.
   I once saw Hassett drop England opening batsman and compulsive hooker, Cyril Washbrook, twice in succession at deep fine leg. 1990, Ashes: Battles and Bellylaughs, Byron Bay: Swan Publishing, page 32
6. A crocheter.
7. (informal, dated) Synonym of hook (“attention-grabbing element of a creative work”)
   We regard the first seven seconds of a television commercial as the most critical or crucial in the whole unit — the "Do or Die Seven" — the "moment of decision" or the "hooker", if you will, when we must capture the attention of the viewer, get him involved in the action, […] 1966, Charles Anthony Wainwright, The Television Copywriter, page 39
8. (archaic, thieves' cant) A thief who uses a pole with a hook on the end to steal goods.
   They are sure to be clyd in the night by the angler, or hooker, or such like pilferers that liue upon the spoyle of other poore people. c. 1608–1610, Samuel Rid, Martin Mark-all, Beadle of Bridewell
   Suffer none, from far or near, / With their rights to interfere; / No strange Abram, Ruffler crack— / Hooker of another pack 1834, William Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood, volume 2, Oath of the Canting Crew, page 339

Etymology 2

Unknown; The "prostitute" sense is the subject of a folk etymology connecting it to US Civil War general General Hooker, but the earliest known use dates to 1835, decades before the war. Less implausibly, it has also been connected to coastal features called hook (“A spit or narrow cape of sand or gravel turned landward at the outer end, such as Sandy Hook in New Jersey, Red Hook in New York”) in the ports of New York and Baltimore. Careful learned inference is not conclusive. See this essay, pp 105ff.

noun

1. (US, slang) A prostitute.
2. (slang, dated, 1920s to 1940s) An imprecise measure of alcoholic drink; a "slug" (of gin), or an overlarge gulp.
   Emily had cut short these 3 A.M. glooms with a hooker of bourbon. 1993, Herman Wouk, The Hope (novel), page 675

Etymology 3

noun

1. Alternative spelling of hookah